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; The Way To 
Perfect Healing 

BY WILLIAM E. TOWNE 



THE WAY TO PERFECT 
HEALING 



THE POWER OF THE WORD IN ANCIENT AND 
MODERN SPIRITUAL HEALING. HOW TO AP- 
PLY THIS POWER IN SELF-HEALING. HOW 
TO TRAIN THE MIND TO REALIZE HEALTH 



By William E. Towne 



'SPEAK THE WORD ONLY AND 
MY SERVANT SHALL BE HEALED" 



PRICE, 50 CENTS 



Published by WILLIAM E. TOWNE, Holyoke, Mass. 



D D 






Copyright May 25th, 1910 

BY 

William E. Towns 



©CI.A265488 



TO THE READER. 

To all who hunger for harmony this 
little book may carry healing. 

It is not claimed that it contains any 
new teachings. It is a new statement 
of old truth. It is an attempt to bring 
into clear relief the true principle by 
which Jesus healed the sick and raised 
the dead. 

Make this book your daily compan- 
ion, read and re-read it, and it will 
guide you into health and joy. 

The Author. 



ELEMENTS OF ANCIENT HEAL- 
ING. 

The Word. 

For the bread of God is he which 
cometh down from heaven, and giveth 
life unto the world. — St. John 6 : 33. 

Why do ye not understand my 
speech? even because ye cannot hear 
my word. — St. John 8: 43. 

The New Testament is primarily a 
record of healing and of healing philos- 
ophy. 

The healing taught and manifested 
by Jesus consisted in coming into a 
consciousness of wholeness. Those 
who were healed were "made whole." 
The palsied, the lame, and the blind 
were regarded as lacking in wholeness. 



This lack of wholeness was a lack of 
at-one-ment with the will of God, or 
the One Principle and Primal Source 
of life. It was a condition of con- 
sciousness. 

The man with a palsied arm is only 
partially conscious of his own life. 
His real self is not palsied. The soul, 
the divine Principle within him, is 
eternally alive. The spiritual forces 
of his being are ready to flow through 
the palsied arm and give it life so soon 
as the word of authority shall call them 
into action. 

The palsied man has denied the life 
within until it has ceased to manifest, 
and he is no longer whole in conscious- 
ness. He lives in only a part of his 
temple. He regards the remainder of 
himself as dead. 

Man is led into such imperfect con- 



ditions of consciousness (which man- 
ifest in the body as disease) by fear 
and through judging from material 
conditions and mortal consciousness. 

One sees that a finger is crushed, 
and, judging from a knowledge of mat- 
ter, believes it can never be healed. 

The truth is that the Divine Mind, 
which builded the body in the first 
place, using matter as a means of ex- 
pression, can rebuild any part of that 
body, if the consciousness will but 
awaken to the truth. 

The healing which Jesus taught and 
manifested was so perfect, so cleansing, 
so sublime and far-reaching, that it 
could only culminate in eternal life — 
an eternal consciousness of well-being 
and wholeness for those who accepted 
it fully. It was not a temporal cleans- 
ing or healing of a part, but a resur- 



8 

rection of the mind to a new plane of 
living. It manifested in a desire to 
"go and sin no more." 

Disease and inharmony — a lack of 
wholeness in consciousness — arise from 
the errors of mortal mind in the inter- 
pretation of truth. 

Disease results can only be wiped out 
by knowing the truth and expressing it 
through the Word. 

The consciousness of the people 
whom Jesus healed was changed by his 
spoken Word. They accepted his Word 
and had faith in its results. He in- 
spired faith because he possessed it — 
because he knew himself and spoke 
with authority. 



SOURCE OF ALL HEALING. 

"And this is life eternal, that they 
might know thee the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." 

To know God is to realize God, the 
One Principle of life, the eternal Word, 
the Divine Pattern. 

"In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God. 

"The same was in the beginning with 
God. 

"All things were made by him; and 
without him was not anything made 
that was made." 

All healing proceeds from the crea- 
tive Word. 



10 

Those who heard the "words" of 
Jesus (which were scientific expres- 
sions of the One Word) were healed. 
Those who refused to hear his words 
remained in error and sin (shortcom- 
ing, lack of wholeness). 

"And the man believed the word that 
Jesus had spoken unto him, and he 
went his way. '* * * Why do ye not 
understand my speech? even because ye 
cannot hear my word." 

The Word is the potentiality of that 
which is, the Eternal One. Our words 
(including our thoughts) are our rec- 
ognition of the One. 

Our words are but our finite at- 
tempts to glimpse the Infinite — the In- 
finite Pattern, the Infinite Reality or 
Principle in all manifestation. 

To speak the Word is to make way 
for its realization and manifestation. 



11 

When you speak the Word in faith 
your consciousness is open to the en- 
trance of truth. 

Without faith there is a barrier of 
doubt in your mind which will prevent 
the Word from manifesting. 

Jesus healed by dissolving forever 
this barrier of doubt in the conscious- 
ness of the diseased one. This the 
Master was able to do because of his 
great faith and understanding. He 
spoke with authority. 

To successfully speak the Word of 
health to yourself or others, it is first 
necessary to still the mortal mind, that 
the Word may come forth into mani- 
festation. 

The Word is eternal. It awaits to 
be spoken into realization. 

Faith makes the necessary connec- 
tion between your mortal consciousness 



12 

and the Word of Divine Principle or 
Truth. 

When you affirm "I am Health," you 
are putting yourself into alignment for 
the Word to manifest through you. 

Live, think, and act in harmony with 
what you desire to become. 

God is love. Therefore think, speak, 
and act love. 

God is just. Think, speak, and act 
with as nearly absolute justice as you 
can. 

We are weaving always after the 
divine pattern. This pattern is the 
Word of truth, which exists from ever- 
lasting to everlasting. 

In proportion as we are at-one with 
this Word, do our mortal words have 
power. 

The Word is creative power. With- 
out it "was not anything made which 



13 

was made." It is the seed in the mind 
which springs up and bears fruit after 
its kind, IP we do not check its growth 
with mortal error thoughts. 

Doubt, fear, envy, hatred, are weeds 
which choke the growth of truth in the 
mind. Where these exist the creative 
power of the Word manifests in dis- 
torted form. 

When we become too engrossed in 
material things we lose our spiritual 
consciousness and our connection with 
the creative source. We become sepa- 
rated from that which gives life to 
materiality. The result is inharmony. 
We are mistaking a reflection for the 
thing itself. 

Mortality is only a mirage of Spirit. 

To become lost in mortality — the 
material — is to cut one's self off from 
the source, so that one cannot "under- 



14 

stand the speech" of God (One Prin- 
ciple of Life). 

In such a mental condition, man 
builds around himself well-nigh impen- 
etrable walls of prejudice, fixed and 
narrow beliefs, and error thoughts 
along certain lines. 

He lives in an unreal world, even 
while he thinks that nothing is real but 
that which he can see, feel, taste, hear, 
or smell. 

Jesus shattered these walls of delu- 
sion in the minds of his patients by the 
power of his spoken Word. 

Nearly all the sick whom Jesus 
healed were hopeless cases. Many of 
them had suffered for years. Some of 
them had spent large sums of money 
upon physicians without gaining any 
relief. Some had even entered upon 
the sleep of death, and were brought 



15 

back to life by the quickening Word of 
power spoken by Jesus. 

These sick people whom Jesus healed 
had "reached the end of their rope." 
They had no hope of relief except in 
this one direction. All human methods 
had failed. They were therefore ready 
to accept the seed of the Word. It was 
no longer choked by the mental rubbish 
in their minds. Their faith in Jesus 
was sufficient to open their minds to 
the Word. Jesus inspired great faith, 
because he was the living embodiment 
of truth. So they received the Word 
and were healed. 



RECEIVING THE TRUTH. 

One of the most difficult features of 
mental healing is to induce people to 
receive the Truth. 

We are all so mentally constructed 
that we do not want to know Truth. 
We want only our conception of what 
Truth ought to be. We want the heal- 
ing to come according to our ideas. 

The first great requirement in all 
healing is that we be "as little chil- 
dren" ready to be taught and led by the 
Spirit, "It is the Spirit that quicken- 
eth. * * * Howbeit when he, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide 
you into all truth." 



18 

The wisest souls are the least arro- 
gant. The truly wise know that out of 
mistakes and suffering, if we trust the 
leading of the Spirit, arise truth and 
healing. 

Did not Job find permanent healing 
and a hundred and forty years of life 
after he set his will in line with the 
will of the Spirit? 

Do not be too sure that you are not 
getting just the medicine you need. 

If you dig down deep to the roots of 
your troubles you will find they are 
growing from the seed of your own 
words. 

"I'm afraid I'm going to have a 
headache," brings a headache. 

"I hate that man," brings hatred and 
the fruits of hatred in return. 



HOW TO REALIZE HEALTH. 

Fullness of peace, happiness, and 
health abide in the Word. 

"For the bread of God is he which 
cometh down from heaven and giveth 
life unto the world." 

To realize the fullness of life it is 
necessary to come into harmony with 
the Creative Word of Life. This we 
can do by speaking and thinking the 
Truth, according to our highest con- 
ception of it. 

The One Life IS health, harmony, 
and power. 

We are one with that Life, and hence 
are entitled to manifest health, har- 
mony, and power. 



20 

If our faith and our words are in 
alignment with this truth, we shall 
realize what we desire and affirm. 

You can make connection with the 
creative Word through your finite 
word and affirmation, and by faith. 
Keep your mental attitude true to the 
Word, and you will realize its power 
growing up within you. 

"Whoso keepeth his word, in him 
verily is the love of God perfected." 

The mortal mind must be resur- 
rected from its belief in disease and 
death before complete healing can take 
place. 

Disease is not a result of some force 
or power outside yourself and beyond 
your reach. 

Once you awaken to this fact the 
Word of Truth has a chance to unify 



21 

the forces of your body and bring you 
into health. 

While you are holding a belief in the 
power of disease you are a divided be- 
ing, and the love of God cannot be per- 
fected in you. 



UNITY. 

Everywhere in the teachings of 
Jesus we find emphasized the idea of 
unity. 

The healing, purifying, joy-bringing 
philosophy which he taught was based 
upon the foundation statement that he 
and the Father were one, and that all 
who believed upon them were also one 
with them. 

To believe in God is to believe in 
Absolute Truth, in the One Principle of 
Being. 

To believe in Jesus is to believe in 
the Truth which he made manifest to 
man through his work and teachings. 



24 

He was the first example of a man 
living in harmony with Truth or God. 

He came to teach the world the way 
to harmony and happiness and health. 

He affirmed that those who accepted, 
and acted upon, the principles of Truth 
would be able to do the things which he 
did. 

"He that believeth on me, the works 
that I do shall he do also; and greater 
works than these shall he do; because 
I go unto my Father." 

Unity with the One was to put them 
in touch with the source of power and 
healing. When they realized their 
unity, then they could speak the Word 
of power. 

"// ye abide in me, and my words 
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, 
and it shall be done unto you." 

"I and my Father are one." 



25 

"At that day ye shall know that I am 
in my Father, and ye in me and I in 
you." 

To the man who was healed of a 
disease of thirty-eight years' standing, 
Jesus said, "Behold, thou art made 
whole," i. e. y the man became conscious 
within himself of his unity with Truth. 

When this wholeness of consciousness 
is complete, and carried out to its log- 
ical conclusion, the man is "saved." 
He has returned to his Father's house. 
He no longer sees two forces — one evil, 
one good — working in the world. He 
knows that the devil is but a commis- 
sioner of the Father; that the "evil" 
forces which once seemed to surround 
him and beat him down were but 
angels in disguise, sent to teach him a 
needed lesson. He now sees evil every- 
where transmuted to good. He sees 



26 

that error has no real basis. He is 
now nearing the point where he can 
realize that "God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes; and there shall 
be no more death, neither sorrow nor 
crying, neither shall there be any more 
pain: for the former things are passed 
away." 

The man who has developed thus far 
has passed through the process of res- 
urrection in his own consciousness. 

Instead of dwelling in a conscious- 
ness of error (of his own creation) he 
now sees Truth on every hand. 

He now desires only Truth, and 
ceases to hug his mortal errors. 

"J seek not mine own will, but the 
will of the Father which hath sent me." 

The great power of Christ lay in his 
willingness to do "the will of the Fa- 
ther." 



27 

His will was aligned with the will of 
his Father, because he was conscious of 
his unity with the Father. And God 
cannot be both truth and error. 

Jesus' sense of separateness was so 
completely wiped out, his desire to fol- 
low after the errors of mortal mind so 
far obliterated, that all the force of his 
desire led him to live according to the 
will of the One Life. 

And this was what made his Word so 
pregnant with power, so mighty to 
heal. 

One great element in ALL healing is 
the establishment of this sense of unity 
— in a degree the Cosmic sense. 

Take, for example, the experience of 
religious conversion. Many who un- 
dergo the experience of a real conver- 
sion are so filled with a consciousness 
of Good, of the great Principle of 



28 

Unity, that they actually feel all bur- 
dens roll away and only peace and joy 
unspeakable remain. 

One good old church deacon whom I 
knew, used to say that after his con- 
version he felt as if he could jump over 
a barn. I think such experiences are 
caused by a temporary birth of the Cos- 
mic sense, which is only another name 
for a consciousness of Unity. The re- 
ligious ecstasy, sublime emotions, the 
passion to sacrifice the personal will, 
all tend to bring about UNION of the 
personal will with the "will of the 
Father." 

In our present stage of unfoldment 
this Cosmic sense seldom lingers for 
any great length of time; but it is a 
prophecy of the perfect cleansing, heal- 
ing, and spiritual resurrection which is 



29 

now beginning to manifest among the 
people of earth. 

One very successful mental healer 
uses the word agreement in describing 
the consciousness of wholeness which he 
induces in his patients. The patient 
comes into mental agreement with the 
forces of Life — the Principle of Life. 
The patient and healer AGREE that the 
former is whole, and the wholeness 
manifests. 

Was it not something like this which 
Jesus had in mind when he said, 
"Where two or three are gathered to- 
gether in my name there I will be in 
the midst of them"? 

Where two or three gather with high 
and earnest aspirations the spirit of 
unity is far more apt to be present than 
in a larger gathering. 

The fire of faith burned brightly in 



30 

the midst of the first small gatherings 
of Christians, but with growing num- 
bers and the increase of material 
power, the sense of unity has departed 
in degree. 

For those early Christians even 
death itself had no terrors, so great 
was their consciousness of unity with 
the Father. They foresaw that even 
death was to be wiped out for those 
who accepted and put in practice the 
healing knowledge which Jesus taught. 



FAITH. 

Faith brings one to this conscious- 
ness of unity, which results in harmony 
and healing. Even blind faith some- 
times works what appear to be 
miracles. 

Through faith alone does man ac- 
quire the willingness to yield his per- 
sonal will to the One Will, which is law, 
order, harmony, joy, health. 

Faith works results in a material 
way, because all great material works 
have a spiritual foundation. 

The works of an Edison, a Marconi, 
or a Gates are a high manifestation of 
faith. 

Faith applied to business makes a 
Rockefeller, a Vanderbilt, or a Gould. 



32 

Without faith one is seriously handi- 
capped in life. 

Faith is the vital element of being. 

If you are not faithful toward the 
Source of your Being vou cut off your 
own life. 

Doubt is always disintegrating. 

Faith always tends toward concen- 
tration and constructiveness in the 
truest sense. 

Faith builds upon eternal laws. 

Faith says, "Let us do something/' 

Faith arises and lives and loves and 
works. 

Doubt sits still and thinks despairing 
thoughts and devitalizes every one and 
everything in sight. 

Faith is action. 

Doubt is death, the opposite of action. 

We can only have faith by getting 
rid of doubt. 



33 

Job put all his doubts behind him 
and declared, "Though he slay me yet 
will I trust him." And all his trials 
and troubles worked for Job's highest 
good and brought him final peace. 

The life urge finds in you no channel 
while you are filled with doubt. 

Faith quickens within you the vital 
powers of life. 

Realize that you have life within 
yourself; that the One Life is mani- 
festing through you, and that nothing 
(no-thing) outside yourself has power 
to work ill to that life. 

"A man's foes are they of his own 
household." The thoughts you enter- 
tain in your mind about things without 
yourself are the mischief workers. 

Your negative imaginings are the 
only workers of evil. You can always 
dispel them by faith in Good. 



LOVE. 

Love and faith and the consciousness 
of unity are interwoven in conscious- 
ness. 

Love is a means to faith. 

We cannot enjoy faith in mankind 
and hate our brother. 

"Love casteth out all fear." Faith 
exists only where there is an absence 
of fear. 

"Whenever men understand each 
other, love increases," says Mr. Fill- 
more. Some one else has said, "To 
know all is to forgive all." Misunder- 
standing is the sole cause of hatred and 
lack of faith. 



36 

Forgive and love (yourself as well 
as others) and your word shall be preg- 
nant with power. 

You thus become an instrument for 
manifesting the Divine Principle or 
Plan. 

To love is to manifest life. 

Love constructively and you become 
your own creator and re-creator. 

A consciousness of unity leads one 
to love unselfishly. When Walt Whit- 
man saw the officers of the law drag- 
ging a murderer past his Camden 
home, he exclaimed, deeply moved, "I 
am that man." 

Love is the softening, melting mani- 
festation of the Spirit which makes 
over matter into new forms and shapes. 
It breaks up the old hardness and re- 
news the flesh. 

Hard feelings literally harden the 



37 

body and bring lime to the joints, 
stiffness to the muscles, and gray hairs 
to the head. Hard feelings are a fruit- 
ful cause of indigestion and possibly of 
cancer. 

The young in heart are those who 
love. 

Over and over again Jesus associated 
the idea of forgiveness with his healing : 
"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be for- 
given thee," etc., etc. 

Forgiveness is an expression of the 
highest love. It is a constructive ex- 
pression of love. It opens the way for 
the realization of unity and healing. 

When you forgive any one you take 
him into harmony in your conscious- 
ness. And harmony is health. 

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive 
our debtors" is a scientific prayer. In 
proportion as we can live according to 



38 

the spirit of that petition we realize 
harmony and health. 

Inharmony cannot exist where there 
is love and forgiveness. 

Fear is the greatest cause of disease. 
And "perfect love casteth out fear." 
Fear always brings about some sort of 
inharmony. 

Harmony requires adaptability. 
Love develops adaptability. When we 
do not shrink back in fear, we are 
drawn into channels of harmony. 

Love of and faith in Divine Mind 
protect us from accident. 

Reckless persons are often said to be 
fearless. They are not really more 
fearless than others, but use their mor- 
tal will to force themselves into places 
of danger. 

This is not working in accord with 



39 

Divine Harmony, and such forced fear- 
lessness does not protect from acci- 
dent. 

"In quietness and confidence shall be 
thy strength.' ' The real fearlessness 
which love imparts is based upon confi- 
dence. We do not fear or hate that in 
which we have confidence. 

Our confidence in the integrity of the 
universe is assured when we see that 
Divine Mind is the only reality. God 
or Good cannot hate or fear him- 
self. 

Hate, fear, and evil are but mortal, 
erroneous conceptions of the All Good. 
To entertain fear and hate obscures 
the Truth and keeps us in bondage to 
disease. Love wipes out the error and 
restores harmony. 

Why is a child happier and more 
harmonious in his life than an adult? 



40 

Because he loves freely, seldom enter- 
tains resentment, and is full of faith 
in everything. 

Resentment is a form of fear. Re- 
sentment is a re-sending of the thought 
or idea of another person, or of the 
impression made upon the mind by 
another person or thing. We are 
afraid of an image which our mortal 
mind conjures up, and so we re-send 
it — resent it. 

If we were filled with love and lived 
by love we should be able to see farther 
than the outward appearances of others, 
and so would become convinced that 
there was nothing to resent. We 
should be able to perceive the truth in 
them. We should so joy in the truth 
that we should completely forget to 
resent the error. 

And this recognition of truth on our 



41 

part would help to bring it out in 
others. 

You can best help others to overcome 
error by a fuller recognition of the 
truth in them. 

This does not mean that it is never 
wise to call the attention of another to 
an error, but that when we do so we 
should speak in the consciousness of 
love and truth and not of revenge and 
resentment. 



HARMONY. 

If you have realized unity, faith, and 
love in your consciousness, harmony 
should be the result. 

Harmony is the manifestation of Di- 
vine Mind or Truth. To be accurate 
is to express God. To be orderly in 
all that you do makes for health and 
success. Accuracy takes you away 
from discord, and develops poise. 

If the Divine Mind is invited into 
your consciousness you will learn to be 
calm in the face of all difficulties. 

Before one can manifest divine har- 
mony, law, and order, there must be a 
letting go of what the Christian Scien- 
tists aptly term the mortal mind. 



44 

The limited, personal self, with all 
its inharmonious desires, strivings, en- 
vyings, bitterness, must be washed 
with the consciousness of Divine Prin- 
ciple. 

Some accomplish this through con- 
version to a religious belief; others 
through love; many through self-com- 
munion. 

Until the Divine Mind is supreme in 
the consciousness, there will always be 
discord, sickness, and bitterness of 
mind. 

The mortal will controls the body. 
Until this will is harmonized with Di- 
vine Principle, harmony cannot come 
forth in fullness. 



REGENERATION. 

Regeneration is a wonderful word. 
I feel as if the condition of regenera- 
tion were always waiting just around 
the corner, for myself, for you, for 
every one. It is awaiting our spoken 
word, spoken in faith, to spring into a 
glorious fullness of manifestation. 

All that is real in life is also eternal. 
The Principle by which we express 
life cannot die any more than a prin- 
ciple in mathematics can be wiped out. 

Why, then, can we not re-build our- 
selves, "re-generate or produce" our- 
selves anew? We lack only the key to 
the method. And I believe we shall 
find that. Modern Christian Science 



46 

and new thought come very close to it. 
We shall use the truth which they con- 
tain and fuller knowledge of truth will 
grow out of it. 

The first step in regeneration is to 
ally ourselves with the Principle of 
life and youth and freedom and joy 
and gratitude and praise. 

It is a dangerous thing to "know it 
all." An attitude of mind that makes 
you sit down and rest in your knowl- 
edge of life is suicidal. We shall con- 
tinue to go through the experience of 
death, continue to hug decay, continue 
to show age and white hair and tooth- 
less gums and trembling hands and 
tottering feet, until we intensely de- 
sire TO KNOW THE PRINCIPLE OP LIFE, 

and are willing to have our favorite 
beliefs, theories, and customs over- 
turned. 



47 

There is a power of regeneration in 
new ideas. A new conception of life 
may build us over. The Divine Mind 
knows only Life. If we can but let go 
the mortal mind conception of the inev- 
itableness of old age and death long 
enough to permit the inspiration of the 
Divine Mind to replace it, we may start 
at once on the road to regeneration. 

To produce ourselves anew! To be- 
gin each day as a new morning of 
creation! Why not? The fact that 
no one whom we know has yet turned 
back the tide of decay and old age is no 
proof that it cannot and will not be 
done. 

Material scientists have pronounced 
it possible to overcome old age. Up in 
Maine there is a physician named C. A. 
Stephens, who has been working and 
experimenting for years with the sole 



48 

aim to discover a way to perpetuate 
life indefinitely in the human body. 
He is now experimenting especially 
upon foods, as he believes that one of 
the first steps in combating old age is 
to discover a better, more perfect food 
than has yet been evolved. 

Bible prophets foretold that the last 
enemy of man, death, would finally be 
destroyed or overcome. 

I am more and more convinced that 
the only cause of death is an accumula- 
tion of unfavorable hypnotic impres- 
sions. The mind follows a treadmill 
of experience. It slips easily into ruts 
dug by one's ancestors. When we 
meet with disappointment, obstacles, 
unpleasant experiences, the mind is 
thrown back upon itself. After many 
such experiences (and many such are 
incident to every life) the reaction 



49 

causes the mind to lose its resiliency, 
youth recedes, and the tired vibrations 
of middle age come to the front. 

It is all primarily a mental and spir- 
itual process. The physical follows after 
the mind in its journey through life. 

How shall we teach the mind to 
maintain the resiliency of youth? 
First by joying in work. Then by look- 
ing upon every obstacle as a means to 
desirable and delightful experience. 
We should not regard life as "hard." 
That is what makes us grow old. We 
try too hard to do the work of living 
our lives ourselves. We ought instead 
to trust to the Life Principle. Let it 
work out its destiny through us. 

Then we worry too much about re- 
sults. Worry always causes unfavor- 
able reaction. Results should be left 
to the Principle of Life. 



50 



More faith, more joyful trust, more 
letting go, is what we need in order to 
lessen the unfavorable reactions and 
maintain youth. 



A SPIRITUAL CONCEPTION OF 
THE UNIVERSE. 

Most men live continually in a ma- 
terial conception of life. And this is 
why they never come into union with 
real life. They see that all the mate- 
rial forms of life inevitably decay and 
die. And the mind naturally allows 
this conception of life to carry the body 
along into the currents of decay and old 
age, which have been set up and main- 
tained by this material conception of 
life since the days of man's first ap- 
pearance upon earth. 

We grow from the negative towards 
the more positive. "Howbeit that was 
not first which is spiritual but that 



52 

which is natural; and afterward that 
which is spiritual." 

From out this material belief as to 
the nature of life must come a clearer 
understanding of the spiritual Source 
of life. We must come to see God, the 
one Good, as the only real source and 
substance of life, and the material, 
mortal form as only the outer shell in 
which the real life dwells. 

Through this spiritual understand- 
ing of life we shall find the way to a 
life that does not die. We shall come 
into harmony with the eternal vibra- 
tions of youth. 

"For this corruptible must put on 
incorruption, and this mortal must put 
on immortality. 

"So when this corruptible shall have 
put on incorruption, and this mortal 
shall have put on immortality, then 



53 

shall be brought to pass the saying that 
is written, Death is swallowed up in 
victory." 

Man's corruptible body may become 
incorruptible through this entering 
into a spiritual conception of life. 

The spirit does not grow old. Divine 
Principle is not subject to change. By 
entrance into a consciousness of Spirit- 
ual Principle as the reality of life the 
entire body will take on the vibrations 
of the incorruptible. 

"And so it is written, the first man 
Adam was made a living soul; the last 
Adam was made a quickening spirit." 

The life in man has been submerged 
in error thoughts of materiality. It 
awaits the "quickening spirit" of a 
spiritual understanding to bring it 
forth in incorruption. 

A spiritual conception of life brings 



54 

harmony out of chaos. It explains the 
mystery of seeming evil. It brings 
completeness where before there seemed 
but incompleteness. 

Man as God's image and likeness, a 
perfect reflection of the Father, cannot 
know sorrow and weakness. He can 
only know his own erroneous and ma- 
terial conception of evil. 

Whenever circumstances surround 
you with seeming evil, cling fast to 
your spiritual conception of life. Re- 
member that as the life of your life 
is God, no harm can befall you. That 
every experience, rightly viewed from 
the spiritual side, brings you only 
strength. 

You, being one with the Divine Prin- 
ciple of life, can have no real concep- 
tion of sin, sickness, pain, and death. 
These have nothing to do with God. 



55 

They are only no-things. We have 
given them power because of our minds 
being weighted with this material be- 
lief as to life and its nature. Spiritual 
understanding frees us from the power 
of these negatives. 



A PLACE OF PEACE AND MORE 
ABOUT THE WORD. 

A spiritual outlook upon life brings 
the mind to its true resting place. 
The mind no longer wanders in the 
wilderness of mortal concepts of dis- 
ease, negations, and harmful things. 

The mind of God knows only peace. 
The mind of man is filled with peace 
when he realizes that God is the Divine 
Principle of his being. 

Out in the realm of mortal mind 
there is only inharmony, confusion, 
lack of order, because mortal, limited 
mind can never see cause and effect in 
their completeness but must always 
make its judgments and decisions from 
only a part of the premises. 



58 

To be healed in body you must see 
yourself as whole. You must realize 
that the inharmony of mortal mind can 
not affect the peace, order, and har- 
mony of Divine Mind, which is the 
only reality of your life. 

Pain and disease are only the absence 
of life. They possess no power in them- 
selves except as mortal mind endows 
them with it. 

The peace and power which comes 
with a knowledge of the supremacy of 
truth, sweeps aside and dissolves error. 

You can never get far away from 
Divine Life. It is always waiting to 
spring forth whenever you cease, even 
for a moment, to be hypnotized by the 
error thoughts of mortal mind, and are 
ready to speak the WORD of Truth. 

The Word resides in the silence. 
"In the beginning was the Word, and 



59 

the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God." 

From out this silent place of the 
Word, man comes at birth ; to it he re- 
turns at death. The Word is the One 
Life, And from the Word comes the 
only healing power. 

When you are sick, discouraged, 
filled with negative ideas, you do not 
receive this Word of healing. You will 
not receive it. It finds no place in your 
consciousness. Instead your conscious- 
ness is so centered upon the things in 
the noise that it cannot take in any- 
thing else. 

If you would still the ideas of mortal 
mind and meditate upon your oneness 
with Divine Life for a few minutes 
the healing vibrations of harmony and 
peace would come forth from the place 



60 

of stillness and replace the discord 
reigning in your mind. 

For all forms of discord spring up 
primarily in the mind before they show 
forth in the body. The false (limited 
and unreal) ideas of mortal mind show 
forth in discord and disease. The ideas 
of Divine Mind must come forth to re- 
place these before healing can take 
place. 

The Word of truth is powerful to 
heal all inharmony. "All things were 
made by him; and without him was not 
anything made that was made." * * * 
"Speak the word only, and my servant 
shall be healed." 

Let the Word of healing come into 
your mind. Invite it in by faith, by a 
prayerful attitude — if you believe in 
prayer — by gratitude and praise and 
thankfulness. 



61 

Cast out haughtiness of mind. 

Cast out intellectual pride. 

Cast out the spirit of domination 
that arises from a stubborn will. 

Cast out envy, hatred, and malicious- 
ness. 

Invite in ideas of love, meekness, 
generosity, gratitude, good will. 

All these constructive ideas await in 
the Place of Peace and will come up in 
your conscious mind if you make a 
place for them and invite them. 

The place of stillness is the place of 
power. Power is generated in the 
silence. It is not until it comes into 
action and begins to touch the objective 
that you find any accompaniment of 
noise. Therefore do not despise or 
shun the silence. Do not be afraid of 
keeping still. Do not avoid being alone. 

In the silence of solitude you may 



62 

find your best opportunities for growth 
and healing. In the silence you may 
plant the seed of wholeness and har- 
mony which will transform you. 

Few people are near enough to nor- 
mal to ever enjoy being alone. The 
majority crave excitement and the com- 
pany of other mortals. Living upon 
the mortal and material plane they can- 
not comprehend the real life which 
comes out of the silence. They are 
like the prodigal son who fed on husks 
while wandering far from his father 
who was waiting and glad to feed the 
son upon the best in his home. . It only 
remained for the son to return and 
receive of his father's bounty. 

So for those tired and earth-bound 
souls who are struggling to find hap- 
piness in a world of discord, it only 
remains to invoke the peace and 



63 

strength which awaits in the silence 
and they may find joy and renewal of 
life. 

Speak the Word that will open the 
mind to peace and renewal and then 
await in silence for the seed to spring 
up and grow. 

The Word comes up in the mind 
literally like a seed. An idea takes 
root and around it clusters your atten- 
tion, interest, and vital forces. Gradu- 
ally it becomes a living thing and is 
reproduced upon the material plane. 



THE POWER OF IDEAS. 

Each idea reproduces after its kind. 
Each idea, if entertained, is bound to 
attract about it many similar ideas. 
These ideas may become a great power. 

Just think of the wonderful ideas of 
power and the far-reaching results for 
good which sprang from Roosevelt's 
sterling honesty and his advocating up- 
rightness in the conduct of national 
affairs. The entire nation felt a great 
impetus toward honesty and threw off 
much of its indifference to dishonesty 
in public work. In every farthest, 
most obscure corner of the land you 
will find the good effects of this one 
man's ideas. 



66 

These ideas were not so new or won- 
derful, but they were spoken forth into 
action with faith and power behind 
them, and the people responded to them 
because they bore the stamp of Truth. 

This shows what one man can do 
who possesses divine enthusiasm and to 
whom Truth is a living thing, greater 
and more real than the things of the 
material world. 

The great men of the world who ac- 
complish marvelous things are always 
possessed of divine vision. Who knows 
what dreams of a great state which 
should safeguard the rights of millions 
may have inspired Napoleon in his con- 
quests ! His desire for personal power 
may have been a powerful moving fac- 
tor in his life, but surely there was 
something more than that in his 
make-up or he could not have retained 



67 

the devoted loyalty of his legions of 
soldiers. 

To the great financier who crushes 
his smaller rivals and seeks to dominate 
his world of business there is given 
some vision of a great institution, 
greater and more effective than any 
that has gone before. Few such men 
coldly calculate the results to them- 
selves. It is the idea, the enthusiasm 
for the business itself, which draws 
them on. 

To them the vision, the ideal, is as 
real as the things of the material world, 
and they get results. 

If you would get results, awake to 
the value of your ideals and ideas. 
Trust to the ideas that come into your 
consciousness from the silence. Seek 
for your own ideas. Seek to tap the 
well of creative energy within yourself. 



68 

Seek for the promptings of your own 
soul, or your own higher self. 

So long as you seek outside yourself 
for life and satisfaction you are not 
trusting the Spirit of all Life which 
lives through you. 



A CONSCIOUSNESS OF HEALTH 
AND HARMONY. 

Health and harmony are normal con- 
ditions. Life is harmony. Discord is 
not life but a denial of life. 

Let your prayer to the One Life be: 
"Give me the consciousness of the 
supremacy of health and harmony." 

If you concentrate upon the cure of 
some one organ, you are very apt to 
make it feel worse than before. Your 
mental attitude makes it possible for 
mortal mind to be drawn into the chan- 
nels of disease and inharmony. 

To analyze and dissect disease and 
dwell upon symptoms is to give power 
to disease. Mortal mind grows into 



70 

the likeness of that upon which it is 
centered. 

Forget disease, forget the organ that 
seems to give you trouble, and seek the 
CONSCIOUSNESS of health and harmony. 

When the mind is turned away from 
disease and symptoms and led to dwell 
upon the supremacy of harmony, and 
the allness of Divine Principle, the 
symptoms of disease disappear. 

Disease is held in the consciousness 
largely through fear. Nature is al- 
ways trying to preserve harmony. The 
processes of Nature are in the direction 
of healing. But through fear man in- 
terferes with these processes and pre- 
vents the restoration of harmony. 

If you cover your lawn with a rubber 
blanket the grass will die because the 
sunshine and moisture cannot reach it. 
In the same way if you tense your body 



71 

through fear, and imbue every nerve 
center with a consciousness of fear and 
a belief in inharmony as a normal con- 
dition, and also with the belief that 
disease is greater and more powerful 
than health and altogether outside your 
own ability to control — under such 
conditions the consciousness of health, 
which comes from the silence of Prin- 
ciple, cannot be yours. It can find no 
dwelling place with you because you 
have shut it out. 

Speak the Word of health, and har- 
mony, open your mind in faith, believe 
in the supremacy of good rather than 
evil, and your condition will quickly 
change for the better. Each atom of 
your body will begin to re-align itself 
in harmony with Truth. As your con- 
sciousness of the supremacy of good 
expands, your body will be thoroughly 



72 

cleansed from the vibrations of disease 
or inharmony. Disease will be dis- 
solved by the consciousness of Truth. 
I have read a little story of an old 
man sitting by the fireside and affect- 
ing the motion of a distant star through 
the winking of his eyelids. This illus- 
trates the far-reaching consequences of 
our smallest acts. When we pour into 
our consciousness a flood of negative 
conceptions of disease and its nature 
we are preparing for a harvest of dis- 
cord. When we turn our thoughts in 
the direction of Truth, and consider 
health as normal, good as supreme, 
faith as creative, then we are prepar- 
ing ourselves for that consciousness of 
health and harmony which means joy, 
peace, and a happy life. 



THE HABIT OF PRAISE. 

The dead praise not the Lord. — 
Psalms 115: 17. 

Because thy lovingkindness is better 
than life, my lips shall praise thee. — 
Psalms 63 : 3. 

But I will hope continually, and will 
yet praise thee more and more. — 
Psalms 71: 14. 

The real object and aim of all an- 
cient and modern religions is to bind 
back or reunite man with his Source; 
to bring man into harmonious rela- 
tions with the universe. 

This means nothing less than a com- 
plete cleansing and harmonizing of the 
entire being. It means health and hap- 



74 

piness. This is what every religion 
aims at, however much the objective 
point may have been obscured by dog- 
mas and foolish doctrines. 

And all religions have embodied the 
idea of praise in some form. There is 
a psychological and scientific reason 
for this. To hold the mind in an atti- 
tude of praise toward the source of all 
power and life is to render possible 
the manifestation of power and life. 

Life and power go where they are 
welcomed and recognized. If you keep 
your mind in an attitude of praise 
toward Divine Principle which is the 
source and substance of your being, 
you will have no room in your mind for 
error thoughts of denial of life and 
strength. 

If you refuse to recognize and be- 
lieve in the Divine Principle which 



75 

manifests as love, life, and power, you 
simply drive it from your conscious- 
ness. You do not affect Divine Prin- 
ciple by your attitude. You only affect 
yourself. You replace truth with error 
in your mortal mind. You draw a 
mental picture of error (the absence 
of truth) and cling to it as real. And 
the results are just what you expect. 

Praise opens the mind to truth and 
love and health. Those who never feel 
the impulse to praise are already be- 
ginning to die. Mr. Fillmore once 
wrote an article upon "Praise" for 
Unity from which I quote the follow- 
ing:— 

"There is an invisible thought-stuff 
which the mind lays hold of, and 
through a law, not yet fully under- 
stood, makes things. Every thought 
moves upon this invisible substance in 



76 

increasing or diminishing degree. 
When we praise the richness and opu- 
lence of our God, this thought-stuff is 
tremendously increased in our mental 
atmosphere, and is reflected into every- 
thing our minds and hands touch. We 
can impregnate with it the commonest 
things, and transform them to the pat- 
tern of our ideals. A failing business 
proposition can, through this law per- 
sistently applied, be praised right into 
a successful one. Even inanimate 
things seem to receive the word of 
praise, and go smoothly where before 
they have been contrary. A lady used 
this law on her sewing machine which 
she had been holding in bad order. She 
said it gave her no trouble afterward. 
A linotype operator testified that he 
received a certain spiritual treatment 
given him by a healer at a certain 



77 

hour, and his linotype, which had been 
acting badly, immediately fell into har- 
monious ways. A lady in a country 
town who had a rag carpet on her par- 
lor floor, that she had hoped for years 
might be replaced by a Brussels or in- 
grain, heard of this law and began 
praising the old carpet. Inside of two 
weeks, greatly to her surprise, she was 
given a brand-new carpet from an un- 
expected source. These are a few sim- 
ple illustrations of the possibilities 
latent in praise. Whether the inani- 
mate things were changed, or the atti- 
tude of the individual toward them, 
does not matter, so long as the desired 
end was attained. 

"Whatever you want to increase, no 
matter what it may be, praise it. Give 
thanks that it is now fulfilling your 
ideal. You can praise yourself from 



78 

weakness to strength; from ignorance 
to intelligence; from poverty to afflu- 
ence; from sickness to health. The 
little lad with a few loaves and fishes 
furnished the seed that increased 
through the prayer and thanksgiving 
of Jesus sufficiently to feed five thou- 
sand people." 



SUMMARY. 

There is One Divine Principle and 
Substance in the universe. 

This Principle manifests as Life, 
Love, Harmony, Power, Intelligence, 
etc. 

It is omnipresent. 

Man is an expression of this Divine 
Principle. Man is created in the image 
and likeness of this Principle, and in 
proportion as man reflects perfectly 
Divine Principle he is harmonious and 
healthy. 

Disease and inharmony spring from 
the error which man pictures in his 
mortal (limited) mind. Disease is 
simply the absence of truth. A man 
might close his eyes and declare that 
there was no light. All error arises 
from closing the consciousness against 



80 

truth, and filling the mind with pic- 
tures of error — allowing the mind to 
become hypnotized with error thoughts. 

Bless and praise and fill the mind 
with gratitude toward Divine Principle 
and you invite harmony and love and 
health to abide with you. 

Let your prayer be, "Give me the 
consciousness of health." 

Have an objective point in all your 
thinking. Be definite. 

Do not seek to attract health for one 
particular organ ; do not treat yourself 
too much for one particular disease. 
Seek rather to cast out the belief in 
inharmony as a whole, and recognize 
that no form of inharmony is based 
upon eternal truth. 

Health, Life, Love, Harmony, are 
the eternal verities. 



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